Savoring life. Writing on experiences. Moments and milestones in equal measure.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Young, High, and In Love

Can We Be Young For Longer?

There are many kinds of
young in this city. Let’s begin by placing them in two broad cohorts. It’s
lucrative to start with Young-good and young-bad but that is pretty much judgmental (which is not among my long list of virtues and vices for that
matter). So let’s go with the ‘dumb-me’ kind
ofyoung and the ‘smart-me’ kind of young. The ‘dumb-me’ young is founded on the
premises of confusion, misdirected-energy, bloated-ego, and loads of
bewilderment. A typical ‘dumb-me’ young
has a very little sense of life-direction. They know little about everything
else except partying. Not that all of us who like good times are #team‘dumb-me’s but still they are a majority
of party cliques.

Then there is the ‘smart-me’ young. This young is exuberant
too but in the right way. They live for goals and achievements. They know what
they want. They listen keenly and talk less. The adore opportunities and love
risks. They sure know the difference between stocks and bonds. They are not yet
rich but know how to get to the riches. The savor the nights but won’t forget
the gleam and wealth of the day. They are vast about highs but also understand
the lows. They never yield to mediocre courses regardless of how luring they
are. This young is passionate and intentionally directional. They don’t relent
on their course. They know but they don’t have to show they do.

Ok I know this is
starting to sound like a speech but hang on we’re headed somewhere.

I think you’re also
starting to like this young. Probably you have someone in mind. Or better still
you think you are in this category of young. Whichever floats your boat man.
Moving on, my preferred of the ‘smart-me’
young are the think tanks - the ones that exude the Proverbs kind of wisdom.
You’d mistake them for cousins of Solomon. This kind owns the other kind. Let’s me first
loop you in on the young with proverbial-wisdom capabilities. This is the kind
that will look at a bird fly above them and they’ll instantaneously get hold of
utterly deep life lessons. They see something in everything and no – not in the
kind of way you see Pizza Inn and see Pizza. No, they’ll see an egg hatch and
they will tell you about the power of breaking from within creating life and
the way if you break that egg from without you kill the life. This will end up
in insightful pragmatic lessons on growth towards investment and the ultimate
rich island-owning lifestyles we all crave.

So, you’ve been
probably wondering where I am going with this, right? Well I have a thing for
starting a piece and letting the words curve their way towards a certain gist.
Amazing thing if you ask me. It is the easiest way of freeing the creativity harbored in me. Comparable to the feeling of skinny dipping – I never do
skinny dipping anymore (story for another day). Now I wasn’t really sure about
what the gist in this piece would be at the start but now I know. I want to
write about the Young, High, and in Love;
and no, not the Sauti Sol’s Isabella thing. Well maybe a little bit but stay
with me here. I’m talking of the real ‘young high and in love’ of our society –
of Nairobi. Why the young? Well because they are obviously the future of our
nation (that sounds political). Why the high? The high because it’s easier to
find camel milk nowadays than a young person that does not get high. Why the in
love? We all agree love makes people do stupid things, right? So yes that why
we have the in love category.

**

They’re on a rooftop.
It is chilly and the clock is edging towards 2 am. There is so much energy –
it’s been like this since 10 pm. You can feel the music thudding a mile away
from where they’re partying. They have to party you know. Having gone through
university for four torturous years deserves a single night of fun. This you
have to agree with me. At the center of the rooftop is a small table. On it is
a white powder wrapped neatly in a manila paper. They’re sniffing on it one at
a time – some are taking too much of it. There’s also booze everywhere – the
cheap one mostly because they were short of money to buy anything better than
Jameson. Someone’s lying on the floor – a blacked out chic. Many others are
dazed. On the edge of the rooftop stands a couple sharing a bottle and deeply
entangled in love – or so they think. Another couple is making out behind a
water tank – it’s all that matters to them now. As they dance and grind the
scene gets obnoxious as the night drifts away. Here comes the problem – this is
not a single night of ‘fun’. They know they are going to have many more of
these. They desperately want to be young for longer – forever if possible.

**

I call such a situation
a ‘miry clay’ fixture. It is hard to get out. The guys on the rooftop are
probably going to be doing this five years down the line – heck even ten years.
It becomes a habit. They will want to but then old dogs never learn new tricks.
It becomes a cycle. Money comes in and it goes out but leaves them high and in
‘love’ but the young part is not constant – years go by. The sad bit is the rat
race that ensues. The high will get you addicted and that means you have to
fend for it or it will feed on you. The ‘love’ will be sour at some point – I remember
a guy in Roysambu blogging about how the chic they were practicing the ‘high,
young and in love’ madness fleeced him to the ground. Can you imagine weeks
before your wedding and then she’s out? Terrible!!

Let’s end with these
song lyrics. I quote

“I
still fall on my face sometimes
And I can't color inside the lines
'Cause I'm perfectly incomplete
I'm still working on my masterpiece
And I, I wanna hang with the greats
Got a way to go, but it's worth the wait
No, you haven't seen the best of me
I'm still working on my masterpiece”

I am not a genius about
life drills. However, I am smart enough not to repeat the mistakes others have
done along the way. Can we be the ‘smart-me’
kind of young as we work towards our masterpieces? If you make mistakes let
them teach you a lesson but don’t be looped in the mistake. I know you want to
be great and change nations but how about you be strategic about it. I sure
also hope that we have not seen the best of you yet. Or is getting high going
to turn you into a walking dead in future? Finally, we are never going to be
forever young. Be fun, do fun; actualize YOLO because this is good for all of
us. But be intentionally strategic. Cheers to all of us that realize this!